


Lynchpin

by Illeana Starbright (SunlightOnTheWater)



Series: The Gods Must Be Crazy [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Gen, Sennen Items | Millennium Items, Sentient Duel Monster Cards
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-08-07 04:12:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16401083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunlightOnTheWater/pseuds/Illeana%20Starbright
Summary: Rule number 1 of having a normal life; don't pick up weird necklaces you find lying around during dueling tournaments.It would have been helpful if Ayana had known that before the Duelist Kingdom tournament...





	1. In Which Ayana Picks up a Necklace

_Chapter I: In Which Ayana Picks Up A Necklace_

* * *

It was hot, the air heavy with the kind of sweltering heat that stuck Ayana's hair to her cheeks and the back of her neck, tugging pretty curls into unattractive frizz. She bunched it together in one hand and lifted it free of her sweaty skin with a sigh of relief before releasing it and swinging her backpack off her shoulder. She was sure she'd packed a hair tie somewhere in her bag when she'd prepped for this competition.

Finding the hair tie quickly became an exercise in frustration. Ayana had packed and repacked her backpack half a dozen times in the twenty-four hours before she and the other contestants departed for the island and, as a result, it held a hodgepodge of different items she'd shoved in when considering what kind of weather she'd be facing. Maximilian Pegasus's invitation to participate had been sparse on details, leaving the individual competitors to determine themselves what supplies they'd need, so Ayana had decided to pack layers and hadn't regretted it until now. The hair tie was buried at the absolute bottom of her backpack and she slipped it over her wrist before shoving everything back inside and zipping it up.

Putting her hair up resulted in even more frustration when the hair tie flew off her fingers into a nearby field of brilliant sunflowers when she stretched it open to pull it on. "Really?" Ayana sighed, too hot to even feel exasperated. After a moment of staring forlornly into the field, she forged her way inside it, searching the ground for a bright yellow hair tie.

She was moments away from giving up when she tripped over her own feet, silently cursing her decision to wear boots with wedge heels, and crashed almost face first in front of it. It was resting innocently on top of one of the most elaborate golden necklaces she had ever seen. It was a triangle center in a gold ring, the corners of it linking it to the edges of the ring. Five slim, golden claws dangled from the edges of the ring and the eye of Horus was resting on top of the triangle in the center. The whole thing was hung on a thick leather cord and it was surprisingly heavy when she picked it up.

Ayana turned it from side to side, search for any kind of engraving that might give a hint about who it belonged to but found nothing as the teeth chimed almost menacingly with each motion. She hesitated a moment and then slipped it over her neck, unwilling to stick it in her backpack where she might forget it about it until long after it would be easy to return. A chill raced down her spine at the same moment unexpected cold metal touched her chest. Ayana froze, fingers still clutching the leather cord as she fought against the urge to rip the necklace off and toss it deeper into the field instead of taking it with her to track down the owner.

She had to force her hands away from the cord so she could pull her hair up, arguing internally with herself in an attempt to get rid of the sudden rush of unreasonably anxiety that had swept over her. Normally she could talk herself out of mild bouts of unreasonable anxiousness, but this time it wasn't working. Instead her stomach continued to twist as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees.

"Excuse me."

Ayana jumped, startled out of her internal monologue, and spun ungracefully on her heel to see Himari Watanabe standing just a few feet away. Himari was a year older than Ayana, with dark hair pulled up in a stylish bun and a perpetually disapproving look on her face, but Ayana had dueled her before in a few minor competitions and knew she fought fair. "I would like a duel with you," Himari said politely and Ayana nodded eagerly. A good duel would take her mind off the uneasy churning of her stomach, and by the time they finished Ayana would have forgotten all about what was making her anxious.

"I'd like that," Ayana said and Himari gave her a tiny, but genuine smile, as the ground rumbled a bit and a dueling stadium rose out of the ground several feet to their left.

Ayana left her backpack at the base of one of the dueling platforms, pulling her deck out of a zippered side pocket and climbing the stairs. At the top she gave it a good shuffle and placed it in the correct spot before glancing over at Himari. "As the challenged, I will give you the first turn," Himari said and Ayana nodded, taking a deep breath and blowing it out before drawing five cards for her opening hand.

It wasn't a bad opening hand. If she could bait out Himari with a defense position Grass Phantom and utilize its affect on the second one she'd drawn, she thought she'd be able to stall out the other girl until one of them pulled out one of their heavy hitting cards. "I place a monster face down in defense position," she announced, settling one of the two Grass Phantoms in her opening hand face down on the field. The card's measly 1000 defense wouldn't stop any of Himari's usual cards, but Ayana was gambling on that. Once her first Grass Phantom kicked the bucket, the second one in her hand would gain 500 attach, placing it at a solid 1500, which would rival a decent amount of Himari's lower level cards. It was a good start. "I end my turn."

Himari dipped her head to draw her own first hand and Ayana waited patiently as the other girl sorted through the cards she'd drawn. Himari contemplated them for a moment, deep brown eyes serious, and then said, "I also place a monster face down." The field between them shimmered as Himari set down the card before pulling another one out of her hand. "I place a card face down and end my turn."

Ayana drew her next card and chewed on her lower lip as The Unhappy Maiden was revealed. Himari hadn't taken the bait, which meant Ayana had to attack. Otherwise she'd simply be allowing Himari to complete whatever plan the older girl had set in motion unhindered. "I play Seeds of Flame in attack position," she said and a tangled mass of off green vines with arms and legs appeared on the field. In place of a head, it had a blazing gout of flame that flickered out on the sides. "Seeds of Flame, attack Himari's face down card."

Himari's card flipped, revealing Dark Gray, a goat with tiny bat wings and a gray-green horse's tail. Its 800 defense was easily eaten up by Seeds of Flame's 1600 attack, leaving Himari's end of the field empty. "I end my turn," Ayana said, silently relieved that Himari hadn't placed Mirror Wall down as her face down card.

The dark haired girl drew her next card, studied it for a moment, and then announced, "I play a monster face down in defense position and end my turn."

The next card Ayana drew was Rose Lover and she felt her stomach twist uneasily. Usually by now she would have drawn one of her plant princesses to help her wipe the floor with her opponent. Instead, between her hand and the field, she had only one card with over 1000 attack, and most of the cards she'd seen when she'd dueled Himari before had more defense or attack, or both, than that. She had drawn Raging Mad Plants in her first hand, which could add 300 attack to Seeds of Flame, but it required her to clear her field of plant monsters at the end of her turn, so using it would have to be a last resort. "I attack with Seeds of Flame."

Himari's face down card was Reaper of the Cards, which had a grand total of 1930 defense. Ayana felt her stomach plummet towards her shoes as Seeds of Flame crashed into it and was destroyed. Her life points beeped as they dropped from 4000 to 3670, and the necklace seemed to grown colder against her chest as she ended her turn. Himari drew her next card. "I turn Reaper of the Cards to attack position. I also play Shadow Ghoul face up in attack position." A creature with spindly limbs, sharp claws, and far too many red eyes rose out of an oily pool of shadow on the field as Himari said, "Shadow Ghoul, attack Ayana's face down monster."

Grass Phantom was cut down with a screech and a moment later Himari was ordering Reaper of The Cards to attack, sending Ayana's life points plummeting further. With 2290 life points left, the blonde drew her next card. Arcane Archer of the Forest felt cool to the touch, its 900 attack and 1400 defense no comfort at all compared to what Himari had on the field. Despite the warmth in the air, Ayana felt cold. She'd never gone this far into a duel without drawing any of her princess cards. In fact, normally she had trouble not drawing them, sometimes coming up with all three in her opening hand. That she was now drawing and coming up without them made it feel like something had gone terribly wrong.

"I play Grass Phantom face up in attack position," she said after a long moment of deliberation, sweaty fingers placing the second Grass Phantom on the field. "Because of the first Grass Phantom in my graveyard, this one gains 500 attack. I also play Raging Mad Plants, which brings Grass Phantom's attack up to 1800." She licked her lips and then added, "Grass Phantom, attack Shadow Ghoul."

Shadow Ghoul went down with a chilling shriek and when Ayana ended her turn, Grass Phantom shattered like glass as well. The only cards left on the field were Himari's face down spell or trap and her Reaper of the Cards. Himari drew a card but didn't play it, instead attacking directly with Reaper of the Cards and sending Ayana's life points plummeting again. With 910 life points left, Ayana closed her eyes and drew a card, praying it was one of the princesses, or even the last Grass Phantom. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she drew out the other Seeds of Flame card in her deck, giving her enough attack to destroy Reaper of the Cards. Himari's life points dropped a little more as Ayana ended her turn, feel like she could breath a little easier with her opponent's side of the field empty save for a face down card.

"I play Succubus Knight." Ayana sucked in her breath as Himari played one of her more powerful monsters. The six armed, blonde, and horned woman obliterated Ayana's second Seeds of Flame and dropped her life points by another fifty, leaving her with one last draw to come out on top. All she needed was one of the princess cards or Eco, Mystical Spirit of the Forest, and she could wipe Succubus Knight off the board. Ayana closed her eyes, blew out a shudder breath, and drew as the necklace seemed to quick freeze her entire chest. Her breath came in short and shallow gasps as she drew the trap card, Sinister Seeds.

Ayana stared at the card in utter despair, knowing that there was now way she could win the match now. She might be able to bluff Himari, drawing out the match another draw, but even if she did, there was no guarantee that the other girl wouldn't draw the last card she needed in the next hand. "I play a monster face down in defense position," she said, placing Arcane Archer of the Forest with his 1400 defense down, "and place a card face down. I end my turn."

Himari calmly considered the field for a couple minutes after drawing her card, and Ayana wondered if maybe she had been able to bluff the older girl. "I activate my face down card, Polymerization. I combine Tainted Wisdom and Ancient Brain to summon Skull Knight." A rumble of what sounded like thunder shook the arena as Skull Knight emerged from the swirling color wheel of Polymerization, sword at the ready. "Skull Knight, attack the face down monster."A single stroke of Skull Knight's sword had Arcane Archer of the Forest shattering and the necklace against Ayana's chest seemed to thrum with glee as Succubus Knight finished off the last of the blonde's life points.

Ayana's legs were shaking as she collected her cards and made her way down the stairs to grab her backpack. The necklace felt like ice around her chest as she stretched out a hand to scoop up her backpack. Himari swept down her own stairs and towards Ayana like a princess, but her brow was furrowed with worry. "I guess one of these belongs to you," Ayana told the other girl, lifting a trembling arm and indicating one of the three star chips on her band.

"We never officially agreed on a bet," Himari replied, "and I wouldn't want to claim a victory from someone who wasn't at their best, so don't worry about it." The older girl hesitated a moment, lips pressed together in a tight line before asking, "Are you feeling well?"

"Just a little tired," Ayana lied with a weak smile. The leather band around her neck felt as if it was choking her so she lifted a hand to tug lightly at it. "Someone started a duel in the middle of the night last night not far from where I was camping, so I didn't sleep well." That part, at least, wasn't a lie. Ayana had been woken up to what had sounded like a breakup argument which had been followed by an excessively loud and violent sounding duel. She had been too tired at the end to keep track of who had won, but she'd managed to sleep in long past when the sun had risen, so that wasn't why she felt like she was going to shake apart. It was the necklace, trying to freeze to her skin through the fabric of her t-shirt.

"Try to get some rest," Himari advised, reaching a hand out to awkwardly squeeze Ayana's shoulder before sweeping off into the field.

Ayana waited until the older girl vanished from sight before tugging at the leather cord around her neck, intending to take it off and throw it into the field. After everything it had done during her duel, she figured that someone had thrown it away for good reason. She'd barely lifted it away from her chest when the necklace blazed with golden light that blazed up the cord like a streak of lightning, shocking her hard enough that she dropped the cord. The necklace thumped down on her chest, humming slightly, and she stared down at it with wide eyes. What was up with this thing? Normal necklaces didn't remain cold in the middle of August, and they definitely didn't shock people to keep from being removed. This was seriously weird.

"What's going on?" Himari's sharp demand cut off Ayana's train of thought. She pushed through the field of flowers as she heard Himari snap, "Unhand me!"

The older girl came into view, shaking her arm free from an official looking man in a crisp suit. Ayana could see the gun at his belt and he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the middle of a sunflower field dealing with a high school girl. Himari was glaring up at him, arms folded over her chest and chin tilted up imperiously. It didn't look like the start of anything good.

"What's happening?" Ayana asked, shoving past a couple sunflowers so that she was standing next to Himari. "Is there something wrong?"

The man in the suit scowled and Himari scowled back, every bit the only daughter of an important government official. Ayana waited patiently next to the older girl, hands folded politely in front of her. The man glanced between the two of them and let out a long-suffering sigh. "Mr. Pegasus has unexpectedly fallen ill and been taken to the hospital," he said told them. "The tournament has been declared over and all contestants are being escorted off the island."

Himari's brow furrowed but she nodded, motioning for the man in the suit to lead the way. He scowled at both of them and then turned, stomping through the field. Himari and Ayana hurried after him, the blonde's mind racing. Did Maximilian Pegasus's sudden illness have anything to do with the strange necklace chiming lightly against her chest? It had stopped humming and was simply cool enough to be felt through the fabric of her shirt, seemingly passive now that she wasn't trying to throw it away or in the process of dueling. It was as if the necklace had a mind of its own. The sooner she could get rid of it, the better.

A sudden thought struck her and the blonde scrambled past Himari to grab the man in the suit by the arm as they reached the docks. "Excuse me, sir," she said, voice squeaking a little bit when he turned to scowl at her. "I don't mean to pester you, but I found this necklace out in the field and I was wondering if you'd seen anyone earlier in the tournament wearing it." Not that she thought they'd want it back, but it was worth a try.

He took a cursory glance at the necklace, already shaking his head before he'd truly looked at it. "I don't remember seeing anyone with it," he told her, motioning another disgruntled looking teenager on to the boat.

"Are you sure?" Ayana heard a pleading note enter her voice, which only made the man scowl harder at her.

"Yes, I'm sure. I would have remembered some kid wearing something that gaudy. Now get on the boat."

"But-" Ayana tried to protest, only to have the man grab her by the arm and practically throw her towards the boat with an annoyed growl. The blonde stared at him with wide, surprised eyes as the necklace abruptly chilled against her chest again. The sudden blast of cold made her breath catch in her chest, stopping any further protests about how finding the owner of the weird necklace wasn't her responsibility and allowing Himari to pull her onto the boat.

"Come on," the older girl said. "I'll help you ask the other duelists about your strange necklace." Himari only waited for Ayana to nod before sweeping away, the crowd of disgruntled duelist parting for her like she was some kind of royalty. Ayana spared a brief moment to be envious of the other girl's confidence before forging her own way into the crowd. She needed to find out who this necklace belonged to before they got back to the mainland and she lost any chance of finding the owner and got stuck with the creepy thing.


	2. In Which Strange and Frightening Dreams Are Had

_Chapter II: In Which Strange and Frightening Dreams Are Had_

* * *

She was standing in a weak circle of light, surrounded on all sides by a deep darkness. She thought she heard the muffled scratching of claws as the pool of light around her flickered before going out. The darkness swallowed up sight and sound, leaving her standing frozen, breath coming in shallow gasps. The scratching of claws came closer and she flinched as something made a scraping noise near her feet, then yelped as a leathery limb brushed her cheek. A distant light appeared, glowing a cheerful gold, and she sprinted towards it, stumbling over uneven patches on the ground. She had almost reached it when her foot caught on something. She skidded across what felt like dirt and gravel, ending up only inches from the glowing necklace she'd found during the Duelist Kingdom tournament. It had a halo of steady, warm light around it that kept whatever creature was stalking her at bay. She had managed to push herself up on her elbows when a voice taunted, "Are you afraid of the dark?" The necklace's light abruptly vanished as the voice let out a chilling laugh.

Ayana bolted upright, tangled in her sheets and soaked in a terrified sweat. The necklace sat innocently on her nightstand, showing no sign of glowing like it had in her nightmare. It looked just like a gaudy piece of jewelry, but after how unnaturally cold it had gotten during her duel with Himari, she doubted that it was as innocent as it seemed to be.

The blonde untangled herself from her sheets and crossed the floor to throw open her window, the cool night breeze feeling good on her sweaty skin. She leaned her elbows against the windowsill, eyes drifting closed as she enjoyed the fresh air. She hadn't slept well since she'd come back from the island, haunted by nightmares of something stalking her in the shadows and a male voice taunting her whenever the necklace made an appearance. Even though her nightmares were slightly different iterations of the same thing over and over again, Ayana still found herself jerking awake every night and then desperately straining to stay awake until sunrise.

If her parents had chosen different professions and been home more often, they would have been concerned about her lack of sleep, but Ayana's mother worked night shift at a hospital and her father's job at the Watanabe family's thriving company often had him working long hours. Ayana had seen her parents for a total of maybe two hours since she'd come back from the Duelist Kingdom tournament, none of their schedules overlapping enough for her parents to notice anything wrong with her. That, at least, was a relief because she wasn't sure what she would have told them. Anything she'd say about the necklace would quickly end up sounding crazy and just saying that she was having nightmares seemed weak and inadequate.

The dreams felt real. Horribly, terribly real and not in the way nightmares did moments after you'd jolted awake from them, only for logic to kick in moments later and make them feel like a jumble of nonsense that quickly faded. Instead the details lingered long after she'd started her day, gulping down coffee by the gallon in a vain effort to stay awake and functional. Ayana slumped further into the window frame, exhausted after several days in a row with little to no restful sleep but unwilling to face another nightmare.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and the blonde opened her eyes in time to see a flash of lightning from between one of the buildings at the edge of town. The weather segment of the eleven o'clock news had insisted that the storm wouldn't reach town until early morning, which meant that she should probably attempt to sleep again, even if that only resulted in curling up in her bean bag chair underneath the window and listening to the longest possible ocean sound video she could find online. Instead she heard noise from the kitchen, which was just down the hall, and pushed off the windowsill, heading out of her room to check it out.

Her father was standing in the middle of the kitchen staring at the coffee maker like it was a strange and monstrous creature while a crisp, white filter hung limply from one hand. He turned to smile at her when she stepped into the warm halo of the kitchen lights, saying, "Morning, sweetheart. You're up awfully early." Ayana glanced past his shoulder to see the microwave clock was showing that it was 5:45 AM. She'd managed to sleep longer than she'd thought, not that learning that made her feel any less exhausted. She watched her dad wrestle with the filter, trying to fit it properly into the coffee maker, for a long minute before managing it with a triumphant, "Ha!" He spooned grounds into the filter, measured and poured out the water, and the coffee maker gurgled to life.

Ayana leaned against the counter to watch him, tense muscles unwinding slowly as she listened to her father hum tunelessly. He puttered around the kitchen, searching through cabinets to find out where her mom had stashed the cereal in a sleep deprived haze. The routine was comforting, pushing away most of her lingering unease from the reoccurring nightmares. Dad dug the milk jug out of the back of the fridge, hidden behind a half full bottle of orange juice, two grapefruit, and the bag of the flour, before glancing at the sell by date and promptly sticking it back. Probably a good choice honestly. Ayana wasn't sure when any of them had gone grocery shopping last, which meant that half the food in the fridge probably needed to be thrown out.

Her dad glanced mournfully at the dry cereal in his bowl for a moment before sticking a spoon in it and walking carefully across the linoleum in his socks to stand across the counter from her. His first bite of dry cereal crunched loudly and he winced, giving her a look of mock despair as he soldiered on. Ayana wanted to laugh at his antics, just like she always did when he was forced to suffer through dry cereal, but exhaustion weighed too heavily on her and the nightmare lingered in the back of her brain, just waiting for the right moment to surge up and pull her under with the undertow.

"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Dad asked, abandoning his cereal to lean further over the counter. Ayana shrugged, not wanting to lie to him but not wanting to try to explain what was going on either. He frowned, probably trying to remember everything she'd told him about what was going on in her life the last time they'd had a moment to talk, and then asked, "Are you worried about the exhibition match tomorrow?"

The intercity dueling tournament, between several of the schools in Nagahama, took place every fall and the top ten finalists were paired up at random a week after the tournament for exhibition matches. Himari had, naturally, crushed the competition with her deck of nightmare creatures and was gearing up for the big Kyoto Tournament in two weeks so she'd probably flatten whoever was chosen to duel against her in about four turns, maybe less than that if they were unlucky in their draws. Ayana had placed fifth, which was respectable and had earned her an invite to a less prominent tournament in Sapporo at the end of the month, which she'd babbled about practically nonstop to her parents since she'd gotten the invitation.

The excitement had cooled considerably since her disastrous performance at the end of the Duelist Kingdom tournament and the weird behavior of the necklace sitting innocently on her nightstand, so she wasn't exactly lying when she said, "Yeah."

"I know that your last duel didn't go as you'd hoped, but the one coming up is a clean slate," he told her. "I'm sure it will go much better for you." Ayana managed a tired smile as he pulled her into an awkward hug across the kitchen counter. Maybe Dad was right. Maybe if she just left the necklace at home she could go back to enjoying her duels.

"Thanks, Dad," she told him when they pulled apart, her smile much more genuine. "I'll get breakfast later. I have to put my nails on this morning so I can actually draw my cards tomorrow afternoon without looking like an idiot." Half of dueling tournaments, and more than half of exhibition matches, were style. The way you presented yourself was incredibly important, so when Ayana had started dueling seriously, she'd also started buying fake nails. Since she didn't wear them outside of tournaments, she always had to put them on at least a day before her next duel so she could get used to picking up things with much longer nails than she usually had.

"Let me know if you need help opening the cereal box after you're done."

" _Dad_ ," Ayana whined, flouncing exaggeratedly off towards her room in an effort to hide her growing grin. The first time she'd worn fake nails, she'd given herself a nasty looking scratch on one eyebrow, been unable to get the batteries in the wireless thermostat out so she could change them, and her parents had come to her practically in tears on the kitchen floor because she hadn't been able to open an unopened cereal box. She'd gotten a lot better with them since then, but both her parents loved to tease her about it every time she mentioned she was going to put on her nails.

Ayana's good mood lasted right up until she stepped into her bedroom and she realized that the necklace was flat out glowing, lighting up the darkness of her bedroom like a particularly unnerving nightlight. The light it was letting off was the same warm gold that it had in her dream, which only made the whole situation feel that much more unnerving. Ayana approached the necklace warily and stared at it for a moment, waiting for the light to go out. Instead it seemed to glow brighter, as if pleased by her approach. The blonde grimaced at the thought and delicately picked it up by pinching the chain between two fingers. She lifted it off the nightstand and pulled open its drawer, dropping the necklace inside with a heavy thunk and quickly slamming the door shut. The room was plunged into relative darkness, only a little bit of light seeping out of the drawer.

Ayana stared at it for a moment, half expecting the necklace to start rattling around in the nightstand drawer, but nothing happened. The necklace seemed content to glow inside the drawer like a silent beacon, though the blonde wasn't sure she wanted to know what it was signalling to. She turned her back on it with a sigh and crossed the room to turn on her light, squeezing her eyes shut as she did so to avoid temporarily blinding herself. Then she settled on her stool in front of the vanity her parents had bought her for her last birthday and started setting out the fake nails. The process was incredibly time consuming, so when Ayana finally had them organized correctly and was wiping her real nails with an alcohol wipe, the recent development had been pushed to the back of her mind. By the time she finished applying the nails and headed back into the kitchen for breakfast, or in her mother's case, dinner, she'd almost managed to forget about it completely. If she had looked back when she shut off the light and left the bedroom she might have noticed that the necklace was still glowing from within the drawer, might have noticed the entire drawer begin to slide slowly open, entirely of its own volition, but she didn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: For this chapter I did actually get stick on nails at Walgreens and wore them for forty-eight hours before I had to actually remove them to change a batter in my clock (I couldn't get the battery out to replace it with the nails on) so I could more accurate write about Ayana wearing them.
> 
> Ayana's parents do, in fact, exist for this story, and while they won't be super important, they will be popping in and out of it, which is more than I can say for most parents or parental figures in this universe.
> 
> Yami Bakura is a jerk.

**Author's Note:**

> Ayana's deck was put together largely out of plant monster cards that weren't utilized in the anime, but that were released via the card game around the same time cards prominently featured in the anime courtesy of the official card game. Some of the monster cards in her deck are newer (relatively speaking) than the ones the characters in the first season of the anime use, but they were released before synchro summoning was introduced in the card game. This is for two reasons. Firstly, the oldest plant monsters are, quite frankly, terrifying and not something most high school girls would want to use on a regular basis. Secondly, there aren't actually a lot of plant monsters from the era of the original anime, which forced me to improvise some.
> 
> Before someone points it out, I am aware that the Millennium Ring is not thrown into a field of sunflowers. The field of sunflowers in this chapter is actually a reference to Himari's name, which can mean sunflower depending on which kanji you use for it.
> 
> It is implied in the anime, when Yugi throws the duel against Kaiba right outside Pegasus' castle, that there are still duelist that he could win star chips from. This means that there were still people competing when the Millennium Eye was stolen from Pegasus, so it would make sense for security to remove duelists from the island with little to no explanation as to what was happening once that had occurred.
> 
> As for what happened to Pegasus since Yami Bakura wasn't around to steal the Eye from him, well that's just going to have to wait.


End file.
